1. Regarding the new apartment, see letter 826, n. 2.
2. Herengracht in Leiden, where Mrs van Gogh and Willemien lived at number 100. On the same (west) side of the canal, the building at no. 44 and the adjacent premises housed the blanket factory Gebroeders Van Wijk & Co., established by the manufacturer Willem Frederik Verhey van Wijk. The factory produced woollen blankets and woollen yarn, as well as knitted piece goods (RAL).
3. Mulberry tree (F 637 / JH 1796 [2847]).
[2847]
4. Theo had written to Willemien on 27 November about Vincent’s participation in the exhibition of Les Vingt in Brussels: ‘Vincent has sent me a lot of his work recently, including many things that are good ... Next year he will be invited to exhibit in Brussels in an association of young artists, two of whom have come to see his work and found it very interesting. Fortunately his health is good again and, if he suffers no new crisis, he’ll move a bit closer to us in the spring’ (FR b926).
5. Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562 [2704]) and Sunflowers in a vase (F 456 / JH 1561 [2703]).
[2704] [2703]
6. The red vineyard (F 495 / JH 1626 [2745]).
[2745]
7. Orchard in blossom with a view of Arles (F 516 / JH 1685 [2781]).
[2781]
8. Trees with ivy in the garden of the asylum (F 609 / JH 1693 [2789]).
[2789]
9. Wheatfield at sunrise (F 737 / JH 1862 [2874]).
[2874]
10. Theo had written this about F 516 [2781] in letter 819.
[2781]
11. On 6 December Vincent had sent Theo seven paintings intended for Mrs van Gogh and Willemien (see letter 824).
12. The twelve large canvases included the five paintings mentioned in letter 823 – Olive trees (F 710 / JH 1856 [2870]), Olive grove (F 707 / JH 1857 [2871]), Olive trees (F 708 / JH 1855 [2869]), Olive grove (F 586 / JH 1854 [2868]) and Women picking olives (F 654 / JH 1868 [2878]). Also included in this consignment were the two canvases Van Gogh says he is working on in the present letter: Wheatfield at sunrise (F 737 / JH 1862 [2874]) and Pine trees with setting sun (F 652 / JH 1843 [2863]), as well as two paintings mentioned in letter 824: Road menders (‘The tall plane trees’) (F 657 / JH 1860 [2872]) and Diggers (after Millet) (F 648 / JH 1833 [2856]). Other works that might have been included are Wheatfields with a tree and mountains (F 721 / JH 1864 [2875]) – which he sent to Theo in January, along with a number of the above-mentioned works (see letter 834) – and several paintings he had made earlier but also sent in January: Ploughed field with a man carrying a bundle of straw (F 641 / JH 1795 [2846]), Evening (after Millet) (F 647 /JH 1834 [2857]) and Rain (F 650 / JH 1839 [2861]).
[2870] [2871] [2869] [2868] [2878] [2874] [2863] [2872] [2856] [2875] [2846] [2857] [2861]
13. This olive grove with a completely pink sky was the first version of Women picking olives. Three paintings of this composition are known. Shortly after this, Van Gogh reported that he had painted the first on the spot and the second from memory after the first version. He made the third for his mother and Willemien (see letter 829). The chronological order of the paintings can be established on the basis of the change in style and composition, i.e. rather spontaneous in F 654 [2878], more stylized in F 656 [2880], and highly simplified – nearly abstract – in F 655 [2879]. The last work must therefore have been intended for his mother and Willemien, since we see simplification of this kind in the other repetitions made for them (see also letter 803, n. 4).
[2878] [2880] [2879]
14. Olive grove (F 586 / JH 1854 [2868]).
[2868]
15. Olive trees (F 710 / JH 1856 [2870]).
[2870]
16. Pine trees with setting sun (F 652 / JH 1843 [2863]). See cat. Otterlo 2003, pp. 323-327, and Hendriks and Van Tilborgh 2001, p. 155 (n. 87).
[2863]
17. This was letter 825.
18. Bernard had turned twenty-one on 28 April.
a. Read: ‘déambulent’.
19. For Bernard’s Breton women in the meadow [2236], see letter 712, n. 4.
[2236]
20. Breton women in the meadow (after Emile Bernard) (F 1422 / JH 1654 [2761]).
[2761]
21. For Bernard’s portrait Bernard’s grandmother [2212], see letter 655, n. 3. Van Gogh received it in exchange for his Self-portrait with a straw hat (F 526 / JH 1309 [2552]). See letter 704, n. 5.
[2212] [2552]
22. Letter 822 reveals that Bernard had in any case sent photographs of his paintings Christ in the Garden of Olives, The adoration of the shepherds, The annunciation and Christ meeting his mother.
23. With regard to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, see letter 625, n. 10.
24. For Millais’s The Huguenot, see letter 11, n. 4.
25. Van Gogh is mistaken: The Light of the World [2307] is not by Millais, but by William Holman Hunt. See letter 108, n. 10.
[2307]
26. Bernard said he would like to have one of the Berceuse paintings; see letter 820.
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